[Lozypopz]

Hi there,
So due to being overdue I am booked in to have gels in a few days time followed by ARM the next day and a drip if needed to bring on labour as not much is happening on its own. I will be 41w4d ( if it doesn't happen on its own).
I was just wanting any advice from others who have been through induction or a similar situation. This is my first baby so I don't know what to expect. I'm glad I did a calm birth course to keep me open minded about how the birth unfolds.

Thank you in advance.

[ubermum]

My advice would be to decline the drip unless there is evidence that the birth needs to be sped up. With my last baby born at 42w, I had ARM at 41+6 at 11am. Labour did not begin until the following morning at 5am, despite all the stair walking, pressure point massaging and birth ball bouncing. I had monitoring to check that I and baby was fine and had agreed to antibiotics at 18 hours post rupture. I had a syntocin drip in my previous birth and vowed I would never do it again unless there was evidence it was required. Wanting to speed me up is not a good enough reason for me. Previous syntocin augmented labour was 8.5 hard hours. Waited for spontaneous labour after ARM was 2 hours.

Make sure that you know all the pros and cons of intervention. Ask them what the worst case scenario for doing something is as well as what happens if you do nothing. With me, they told me prolonged rupture could lead to infection, so I consented to antibiotics. I couldn't see the need to speed things up when that was my only risk.

[Mozzie1]

I agree with the PP - if you can avoid the drip, do. They gave me the drip to speed things up (I had gone from 1-4cm in 2 hours, I wasn't exactly slow!). It led to further complications.

I had done Calmbirth as well, and had a Doula who was very pro natural birth. My doula suggested that I shouldn't feel ashamed asking for an epidural if I had the drip, as it's nothing lie natural labour. I'm not trying to discourage you from having the drug free birth you probably want, but you may need to be open minded about how it unfolds.

[SplashingRainbow...]

I was booked for induction on 41 plus 3. Baby came on his own at 41 plus 3.

As scared as I was of induction I was definitely over it by then.

Good luck'

[07gbam]

I was booked in for an induction with one of mine, but baby arrived before this happened, which was great as I was not happy going over 41 weeks.
My advice is to remember that everyone's experience is different. Especially as this is your first, it is all a bit of an unknown territory, but I would take the advice of the people caring for you, as their experience will guide them, and you. Because someone else had a bad induction, or a bad time with a drip does not mean you will. You will hear plenty of positive stories about inductions, and as the baby gets bigger with each day that goes by, I was happy to take advice from my doctor and midwife. They were capable of making sound decisions based on MY experience at the time, and not based on some other woman who I'd never met who'd had a 'bad' experience with an induction.
Yes, ask lots of questions about why decisions are being made and what impact they may have, but trust is very important.
And you don't need anyone to give you tell you it's ok to have pain relief. It's a simple decision you are capable of making for yourself. Trust yourself.

[crankybee]

At 41 + 3 I started having stretch and sweeps - one every day for three days. I went into labour at 41 + 6. DOn't be afraid to negiotiate if all is well with your pregnancy...like monitoring every day etc

[Chedasha]

I had ARM and drip induction but it was at 39 weeks. Everyones body and birth will go different with it. For myself baby was posterior and the contractions went from nothing to 1000 pretty quick. I was 2-3cm when they did the ARM. But eventually as things didn't progress I had a caeserean.

[joeyn]

I had an induction and didn't find it any better or worse than my non-induced labour. Follow the advice of your midwives :-) I've also been 10 days over, thats as long as my local hospital was prepared to leave me go due to the increased risks.

[SeaPrincess]

I was induced at 41+1 with my first, and at 40+1 with my third. Both times I only had ARM, labour established within an hour with the first induction, and within a couple of hours with the second. Both labours were around 6-6.5 hours.

In comparison to my 2nd baby, which was a spontaneous labour just before 37 weeks, things weren't particularly different, other than his arrival was less than 3 hours from first contraction to birth.

[MahnaMahna]

OP I have had 3 inductions now and honestly there is no one that knows better how to proceed with this than you and your OB.

I had two gel inductions and one balloon catheter and drip. The balloon catheter and drip was, by far, my best labour but both of the gel inductions were very different experiences, one good and one not so great. However, as you can see from some PPs, they don't like their experiences with the drip.

Having people share there stories on here is great to hear about past experiences but don't take on any medical advice. Every labour for every person is very different and inductions are usually decided on what state of preparation for labour your body is in at the time.

Good luck!